0 ABOUT MEN AND MATTERS 0
"Dave" Rankin, the. corn and cattle 'king of Tarkio, Mo., is dead
at 'the ripe age of 82. There has been a lot of romance written about
Rankin and he has been held up as something of a model in the agri
cultural line. '. The fact of the matter is. Rankin was not a progres
sive farmer. lli was "set" in his ways, and he followed his system
regardless of the improvements discovered iby more progressive men.
He was successful in making money because he farmed on a large
scale and raised cattle on a large scale. Other farmers raised vastly
more corn to the acre, although they farmed fewer acres. They
put on more pounds per steer, but they did not fatten as many
steers. The most interesting feature of the Rankin system was the
clock-like precision upon which it was conducted. On that score
Rankin was a wonder. Yet for all of his success as a corn raiser and
cattle producer Rankin was prouder of his invention of the "double
row cultivator" for corn than he was for his money making ability.
He made it a principle to buy land, never to sell it. Much of his
wealth resulted from this policy of buying land as cheaply as
possible and holding on to it. The increase in value would have
made him rich' without raising crops or f attening cattle. "We venture
to say that we could take a hundred graduates from the Nebraska
Agricultural school, divide the Rankin corn lands among them,
and get practically one-third more corn from the same acreage
than Rankin got. for all of his much touted ability as a corn raiser.
Rankin was a bluff, generous man, but before he gave any money
away he wanted to know what it was going for. He practically en
dowed Tarkio college, but it was not because he as wonderfully
interested in higher education. He built the main building for a
court house,-expecting thereby to get the county seat of Atchison
county away from Rockport. The people, however, said "nay," and
Rankin found himself with a useless building on his hands. If it
couldn't be used as 'a court house about the only thing it could be
used for was a school building, and Tarkio already had one. So
Rankin readily accepted the suggestion that it be utilized as a col
lege "building. .The Baptists were fortunate in having made the.
suggestion first, and as a result of their foresight and Rankin's
failure to land the county seat they secured a fine building. Then
Rankin helped along because he considered himself a sort of father
to the enterprise. The result has been vastly more beneficial to Tar
kio than the possession of a county seat.
Ex-Senator David B. Hill's death served to recall the fact that
some years ago there was a democratic politician of that name. As
a publicist he never amounted (to much. He was merely the product
(Of a peculiar political machine that could not, in the very nature
of things, grind out big, broad-minded men. He was a- politician
always, a statesman never. He belonged to that numerous class of
men to whom political expediency ,is everything, principal secon
dary. During the last six or eight years he has 'been very little in
the public eye, preferring to remain in practical seclusion at his
home, "Wolfert's Roost." A few months ago he emerged from
his seclusion to argue a case as attorney for a big corporation, and
the announcement of this fact wras a surprise to a great many people
who had been laboring under the delusion that he had died some
years before.
Having made known to us our duty in the matter of preventing
"race suicide," informing. us as to the best methods of rearing our
families, censoring our politics, exposing the nature fakirs, manhand
ling the muck rakers, revising our natural histories and classifying
the trusts into their two proper classes for our eternal edification,
Theodore Roosevelt has not set about the task of telling the farmers
how properly to conduct their farming operations. There is nothing
in the line of human endeavor that this man cannot furnish us en
lightenment upon. Every time he bobs up with his platitudes uttered
in the voice of one firmly conscious that he is uttering a wonderful
new truth, we are reminded of the story of the two boys discussing
the relative merits of their respective fathers. One of the boys,
finally overcome by the superier claims of the other, exclaimed :
' ' Well, anyhow, your father don 't know as much as God. ' '
"I know he don't," replied the other. "But my father is not as
old as God yet. " ' . .. .
Senator Cummins has rather lowered himself in the estimation of
a great many men by his speech at Chicago on October 24. A lot
of democrats have been supporting progressive republicans for
congress 'because they were more interested in reform than in party
success. - Now comes Senator Cummins and declares, in effect, that
republicans would better vote for "standpatters" than to. vote for
democrats, basing the declaration on the ground of "party unity."
Now party unity is something of quite as much concern to the demo
crat as to the republican, therefore, if Senator Cummins is correct
in his stand every democrat should vote -for the democratic candi
dates, no matter how progressive the republican candidate may be.
This simply means that Wisconsin democrats should not support and
iwork for LaFollette that Indiana democrats should not support
Beveridge. If Senator Cummins is quoted correctly, " and means
what he ,,says, he merely convicts himself of insincerity, in that he
is a progressive for the purpose of gaining .a factional advantage
'in his party, not for the purpose of conferring benefits upon the
great body of the people.
The Lincoln Commercial Club is to be congratulated upon having
chosen a virile, enterprising young man, George Woods, as its presi
dent for the ensuing year. "Old men for counsel, young men for
war," is a pretty good old adage. There are plenty of wise heads
in the Lincoln Commercial Club, and Mr. Woods is just the right
age to manage the fighting end of the commercial game. And right
now Lincoln needs some fighters to secure what is coming to it in a
commercial way. He has been charged with being a " plunger," but
even if the charge is true the fact remains that Lincoln has benefitted
by the plunges made by himself and his associates. The Commercial
Club, which has many things to its credit, may be expected to show
renewed energies, and consequently greater results, during the
coming year.
Because the firm of Miller & Paine employ a large number of wo
men, and because the firm has prospered, the charge is made in cer
tain quarters that the firm is a "sweat-shop " concern. This charge
is made at this time in order to prejudice Mr. Miller's candidacy for
the legislature. Anyone who cares to inform himself can easily se
cure proof that the charge is cruelly false. Naturally the wage for
women beginning in a big department store is low when measured by
the side of wages in the skilled trades. But there are women in Mil
ler & Paine 'a store whose wage is higher than that of any journey
man mechanic in Lincoln. We venture the assertion that the average
wage of the women in Miller & Paine 's store 'is 35 jer cent higher
than it is in any. mechanical institution employing women in Ne
jbraska. The average may not be higher than the average in other
'department stores in Lincoln, but because of the co-operative fea
ture of the Miller & Paine store the chances are that the average
income of the women clerks is larger, many of them being stock
(holders and participating in the profits of the firm. People who are
interested in. progress along industrial lines -will find'hau'ch to in
terest them in an investigation of the methods pursued by Miller &
Paine in the matter of the employment of clerical helpY v ' S ft
It so happens that the editor of The Wage worker has for the two
years last past been engaged in a work that has made him more or
less familiar with conditions of employment in Nebraska.. He be
lieves that the wages of women are much lower than they should be'
in consideration of many points not the least of which ds public
morals. But he also believes, in fact knows, that the women who
work behind the counters of the three big department stores of Lin
coln, Miller & Paine 's, Herpolshekner's and Rudge & Guenzel's, re
ceive a higher average wage than the women clerks in the -Omaha
department stores, and practically twice the wage of their sisters
in the department stores of Chicago. Further than that, the Lincoln
firms are more considerate of their help than firms in nearly every
other large city of the country. If the department stores of every
city in the country were as considerate of their female employes
as the department stores of Lincoln, and paid as good wages, there
would be a speedy and rational change in social and economic conditions.
The other day a Lincoln man who is warmly supporting Dahlman,
said : "If every voter who votes were compelled to step to the front
and annoyance openly his choice for governor, Aldruch would be
elected by a big majority. But because of the secrecy conferred by
the Australian ballot Dahlman will be elected by a big majority."
This ds tantamount to saying that a lot of voters are living lies ; that
many people who profess to be for temperance are really for "per
sonal liberty;" that thousands of church people talk one way and
vote another. It is hard to believe, but experience rather tends to
confirm the opinion expressed by the Lincoln man in question.
Omaha has been crying for a senator for several years, but
now that the opportunity affords the Omaha Bee is against it.
Everybody knows one reason. But not everybody knows all
the reasons. It is now charged that the Bee is strenuously
advocating Burkett, not because the Bee loves Burkett, but
because the re-election of Burkett not only means the defeat
' of one of the Bee's most cherished enemies, but it makes it
possible for the Bee's editor to become a senatorial candidate
himself two years from now. . When that time comes the Bee
may be expected to be very insistent in its claims that Omaha,